


Unexpected (what you did to my heart)

by truthofmydreams



Category: Anastasia (1997), Anastasia - Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Falling In Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:54:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23386975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truthofmydreams/pseuds/truthofmydreams
Summary: After an accidental anonymous meeting years ago, Anya and Dmitry refuse to unknowingly be set up by Lily and Vlad.Years later they meet again only to pretend they are dating to get the meddling people in their life off of their backs.What could go wrong other than falling in love with each other?
Relationships: Dimitri | Dmitry/Anya | Anastasia Romanov (Anastasia 1997 & Broadway)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	1. prologue: accidental meeting

**Author's Note:**

> based on two prompts by daily au on tumblr.
> 
> I was using a flyswatter and you turned the corner and I swatted your face AU
> 
> Our best friends just got married and have been trying to get us together for years and we finally broke and started faking that we’re a couple AU
> 
> but with my own twist in the prompts cause I am bad at following them :P
> 
> there will be mistakes and I am aware of that because English is not my first language

Working at the Café down the street from her Nana’s house was not something 21-year-old Anya enjoyed a lot but it gave her freedom and independence from her family and made her feel a little less like the daughter of a rich businessman and more like the other students in her classes.  
Her older sisters Olga, Tatiana, and Maria couldn’t understand why she wanted to work in addition to going to college seeing as she doesn’t really need the money in the first place but Anya liked being busy and saving the money she made to buy clothes and toys for the children at the orphanage is something that brings her joy.  
She also liked it when her little brother Alexei would come to the café and sit with her to chat or just do his homework.

Today is one of those days when Alexei would sit at the table closest to the counter with only one customer sitting in one of the armchairs reading a book.  
A rather slow afternoon and Anya couldn’t be more bored if she tried. She had finished all the work for her classes already and ways now waiting for time to pass as she heard the annoying hum of a fly.   
Getting the flyswatter out of its place underneath the counter she set her eyes on the target and tried to get the insect.

She followed the fly around the café to the opened door and was just about to hit the fly when a young man, Dmitry, walked into the café and she hit him square in the face with the flyswatter.   
Feeling her face heat up in embarrassment, Anya looks up to see a man around her own age with dark brown hair and dimples in his cheek standing before her, a bewildered look on his face.  
“I am so sorry. There was a fly and it had been annoying me for a while now and then you just walked right in and…”  
“It’s fine. I am sure you would have used something more threatening and hurtful than a flyswatter if you really wanted to hit people.”, Dmitry says and Alexei chuckles from his spot at the other end of the room.

“You’re right I would have used my fists.”, Anya says, “but it doesn’t matter anymore seeing as you are clearly not here to rob the store or else you would have done so already.  
Can I take your order?”  
Not following the girl to the counter, the brunette shakes his head, “No thank you. I was just here looking for someone but haven’t found him. Goodbye, and maybe try to not hit other people some might actually want to rob you and a flyswatter might not stop them as easily as you think it might.” With a smirk on his face, the young man leaves the café through the door before walking around the corner out of the sight of the Romanov’s youngest siblings.

The young woman huffs in annoyance before turning to Alexei, “Can you believe that guy?”.  
“Well, Nastya, you did hit him in the face.” Anya had thrown a towel had his face before he could say more only for Alexei to start laughing.

After a few moments of laughing the only male Romanov child sits up straight again and looks at his sister “Maybe he could have been the love of your life. The future husband, the one you will spend the rest of your life with.” He says before bursting into laughter again.  
“Not you, too.” Anya groans, “It isn’t enough that Nana and Mama are talking about me finding a man and settling down already. But now you, too?”.

The matriarch of the Romanov Family, Marie Feodorovna, was a traditional woman and would love to see all of her grandchildren married by the time they are 23 and have children soon after. But Anya wasn’t ready for that, she wanted to be independent, live on her own for a while and see the world without anything or anyone holding her back.

“You know if you would just meet the guy that Lily says is the perfect match for you, they would maybe leave you alone for a while.”, Alexei says and Anya shoots him a glare with her blue eyes which makes him shut up immediately.  
“And then what? Marry him, have babies and no longer a life of my own. No thank you. I am very happy being alone at the moment and if that guy is so perfect for me he might still be in a few years when I am done with college and have traveled the world.”  
With that, the conversation was over.

* * *

“I thought we were meeting up at that café you always talk about?”, Dmitry says as he sees Vlad on a bench in the park.  
The older man looks at Dmitry and starts laughing, “What happened to your face?”

“None of your business.”, Dmitry says not wanting to admit that he was hit by a petit girl just with a flyswatter and that the hit had actually hurt, “Just tell me what you want, Vlad. I don’t have all day.”

Vlad sits up again and catches his breath but still grins, “Lily has been telling me to tell you about a young lady she wants you to meet.”

Dmitry sits down on the bench and rolls his eyes, “Again? How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t want to meet this girl? I don’t need a girlfriend. I am happy with my dating life.”

Vlad shakes his head, “Hooking up with girls you meet at a bar is not a dating life.”  
“For me it is and I am happy with it, so please tell Lily that she can stop trying to set me up with that girl. If anything, I have a pretty face and could find myself an actual girlfriend. If I wanted to.”  
Clapping Dmitry on the back as he stands up from the bench, Vlad says, “I will, boy. But I can only make her stop asking me to talk to you about it and won’t be able to stop Lily from talking to you about her.”


	2. we were strangers, on a crazy adventure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there will be mistakes as english is not my first language

25-year-old Anastasia Romanov wanted to roll her eyes until she could not see anymore.

Her Nana was talking about her getting married again as her older sister Marie was preparing for her wedding. Which according to her grandmother was rather late at the age of almost 27.

Anya didn’t even have a boyfriend she could get married to if she wanted but according to her Nana that wasn’t the biggest problem, “Handsome men that want to marry into the Romanov family and work for our businesses can be found anywhere”.

Not wanting to get married for business deals but rather for love was something Anya dreamed of. Someone that would explore the world with her rather than suck up to her father and grandmother to inherit money.

Her older sisters almost all married their first or second boyfriends almost out of college, except for Maria, she had met her soon-to-be husband after college and the guy had taken some time to propose but mostly because he was too scared to ask Nikolas for his blessing.  
But it didn’t matter anymore, Maria would get married in a few months and their Nana was happy with her.  
That left Anastasia as the only unmarried daughter.

“What about that young man Lily has been wanting you to meet?”, her Nana said as her assistant Lily walked into the office.   
“Mitya is still single and I could set you up with him if you want to.”, the spoken of woman said.  
  
Anya shakes her head, “No, it is fine Lily. I can find someone myself when I want to.” With these words, she leaves her grandmother’s office and decides to take a walk towards her favorite bridge. Something about looking at the water made her feel calm.

Someone sits down on her right side but Anya doesn’t look up until the person next to her clears his throat, “Aren’t you the flyswatter girl from that café?”.  
Ready to throw an insult at the man next to her Anya turns and her brain stops before she can say anything.   
"Yes, you are. Remember? I walked into the café and you hit me.”, the young man says with a smirk on his face.

With her mouth in a straight line, Anya answers with a nod and turns back to watch over the water again.   
Dmitry leans back against the bench, “If you still want to buy me that apology coffee, I wouldn’t say no to that.”  
Anya turns back towards the annoying stranger to her right, “That offer was off the table the moment you walked out of the café. And now if you could leave me to my own thoughts, that would be nice.”

Leaning forward to with his elbows on his knees to look at Anya better Dmitry can see in her face that something is on her mind, “Sometimes talking about a problem can lead to a solution.”  
“I don’t know that you are talking about. I don’t have a problem that needs a solution.”, with a huff Anya leans back against the bench and folds her arms in front of her chest.  
“Your face and body language says otherwise.”, Dmitry counters with a smirk and raised eyebrow, “I can be a good listener.”

Letting out a sigh, Anya turns towards Dmitry, “Okay fine but only because I need someone outside of my family to talk to about this. My grandmother is old fashioned and wanted my sisters and me to get married young like they used to do. And according to her, I am too old to find a respectable young man that I can start a family with.” At that Dmitry chuckles and looks over Anya, to confirm that she is not an old woman.

“I am 25, that is not old. Anyways, my older sister is getting married, because she can be an exception. Met a nice guy in college and he worked for charities around the world. It seems that is okay to not start a family once you’re a legal adult. And now my Nana, her friend, and my mother want to all set me up with some guy so that I won’t embarrass the family at the wedding by showing up alone.”, Anya continues her rant.

Dmitry looks at her to figure out if she finished talking before giving his advice, “You realize there is a simple solution to the whole getting set up and going alone to a wedding, right? A simple little scheme. Get someone to pretend to be your boyfriend.”

“Would you do it?”, Anya says without really thinking about it.  
“I mean, who would do such a thing? My family knows all of my friends.”  
A smirk makes its way back onto Dmitry’s face, “I would on one condition though. You help me with my friends that are trying to set me up, too.”

“Sounds like a deal. I am Anya by the way.” She says and holds out her hand.  
“Dmitry.” He says and takes Anya’s hand. Ignoring the warm feeling that suddenly spreads from their touching hands throughout his whole body.

* * *

The pair decided to meet up and learn things about each other that a normal couple would know. Like full names and if they preferred dogs or cats or how they met in case anyone asked and knowing her family, Anya was sure someone would.

A month after their agreement, Lily came up to Anya again, about meeting her husband’s protegé and taking him to Maria’s wedding as her date.  
Anya sighs before answering, “Lily, you have been trying to set me up with this guy for years. Do you really think we would be such a good couple?”  
“I think you would get along very well. Both stubborn and passionate.”, Lily says.

_Now or never Anya might as well start telling someone about your boyfriend_ ,“I am actually seeing someone and have been for a while. We just wanted to figure things out on our own before getting the families involved.”, the younger woman says.

“Oh, honey, that is great. Why don’t you bring your man to dinner on Friday at 7 and instead of meeting someone you bring someone you already met.”, Lily says while already walking away to plan the evening.

Taking out her phone to text Dmitry, Anya thinks about how fast the news will now spread among her family.

_Great, what am I going to do if he won’t make it because of work?_ , Anya thinks before setting her phone to silent and putting it in the pocket of her sweater.

* * *

Friday rolled around and surprisingly Lily had not told her Nana and everyone else that she had a boyfriend.

Dmitry had texted her earlier that he couldn’t say when he would make it to dinner as his boss had the tendency to talk a lot. Anya had informed Lily about her boyfriend being late which didn’t seem to bother the woman as long as he would show up eventually.  
When Anya entered the home of Lily it was quiet, which wasn’t the norm for the Popov/Malevsky-Malevich home.  
“Vlad is still out with his little friend so he will be here a little later.”, Lily informed her while they sat down with a glass of wine.

Not 10 minutes later the door swings open and Vlad can be heard through the house, “Lily, I brought Mitya with me. Said he had to be somewhere but I told him that there is nothing that could be more important than your Pelmeni. And that way Nastya can still meet him even if she says she has her own pretty boy now.”  
Lily is trying to hide her smirk and finally getting Dmitry and Anya in the same room and hoping that she would like him and dump her boyfriend to get with the man Lily thinks would be perfect for the youngest Romanov daughter.

“Anya?”, she hears before she can see the person the voice belongs to.  
Vlad blocking her view from the person speaking and talking before she could say anything, “How do you know each other?”.

Dmitry steps into her line of view and Anya tries to hold back the laughter. Of course, would the guy Lily had been trying to set her up with for years be the one she chooses to fake date in order to not meet the Perfect Man.  
Not really knowing what to say, Dmitry looks at Anya, before looking at Vlad and Lily.  
“Dima’s my boyfriend,” Anya says, using the nickname his father had given Dmitry. A story they shared to make their story believable while getting up from her seat and standing next to Dmitry who smiles and puts his arm around her shoulders.

“I told you that you would like him and now you have wasted years that you could have been together just because you were both too stubborn to realize that I am always right.”, Lily says and points her finger at the younger couple in the room, “Just wait until your family hears about this.”

Vlad started laughing the moment his wife’s rant was over and points between Anya and Dmitry, trying to say something but getting interrupted by his own laughter again and again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please leave kudos and maybe reviews :)  
> And let's all hope that I finish this story, I haven't written multi-chapter fics in years


	3. remind me, this is the start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there will probably be mistakes,  
> English is not my first language :P

The news of Anya’s new boyfriend made the rounds in her family quick.  
This meant that Dmitry had to be introduced during a formal family dinner with all the Romanov siblings and the Grandmother.

Everything went well and Anya thought they were safe enough until the wedding and would just break up a short while after.

Not worrying about getting busted, Anya was confident when her brother decided to visit a week after the initial meeting of the family.  
“Did you need to get away from the wedding planning Mama and Maria are doing?”, she asks when Alexei walks through the door.  
“Yes, I was fine when they did the cake testing and asked me to help but now it is flowers and seating charts and I don’t know how many more times I can hear about how no one wants to sit next to Uncle Leopold.”, Alexei says while he drops down on the couch and puts his feet up on the coffee table.

When he feels Anya’s disapproving stare, he slowly takes his feet off the table and leans forward, “So how long will Dmitry play your boyfriend? A day after the wedding or a little longer?”.

Raising her eyebrows, Anya looks at Alexei, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I met him a few weeks ago and wanted to see how we would get along before introducing him to the family. Who could have known that he is the guy Lily wanted to set me up with for years?”, she says feigning ignorance.  
“We all could have known if you had just agreed to meet him earlier.”, Alexei mumbles under his breath before straightening up and answers a little louder, “You didn’t answer my question, Nastya!”

“Because there is nothing to answer what you said.”  
Alexei sighs and leans back into the couch, “Just promise me that you will be careful and won’t get your heart broken or not break his heart. He’s a cool guy I like him.”

“Nothing like that is going to happen. But thank you for caring.”, Anya says and hugs her brother.

* * *

The wedding date was approaching and with that Dmitry and Anya have been spending more and more time together to not raise suspicion about their fake relationship.  
During that time, they had dinners and lunches together and met up at Anya’s apartment for story sharing.

“My mother died when I was young and I don’t remember her but I remember how my father would sit me on his shoulders and just walk around the city with me.”, Dmitry says while they are making dinner together.  
Anya smiles at him, trying to imagine Dmitry as a young boy, “That sounds like a great memory to have of your father.”  
Dmitry just smiles, thinking about how shortly after their last stroll through the city, when he was already too big to sit on his father’s shoulders, his father was killed in a car crash.  
“But I liked living with Vlad, too. He was more of a fun uncle than a father-figure.”

Anya’s eyes widen, as she hears that Dmitry had lived with Vlad. She had known that his father had died but not how young Dmitry must have been for him to be in foster care,  
“I didn’t know that you lived with Vlad.”  
“He kind of plucked me off the street one day and gave me a chance. I don’t think I would be here today if it weren’t for him.”, Dmitry says honestly while cutting vegetables.

* * *

Not only did they spend time together alone but Maria forced them to take dance lessons, “that way you won’t be an embarrassment at my wedding.”, she said before shoving Anya into a dressing room for a final fitting of the bridesmaid’s dresses.  
  
So, the pair took dancing lessons with all the other Romanov siblings and met up in private to rehearse some more. The first lesson ended with crushed toes and bruised shins as every time Dmitry would step on Anya’s toes, she would kick him in retaliation.

But something felt off whenever Dmitry would put his hands on her waist, like something fluttering in her stomach.  
She couldn't catch feelings for him, she didn't need or had the time for a relationship at the moment. It wouldn't matter anyway in a few weeks.   
They would go to the wedding and then stage a break-up. And she had promised Alexei not to get hurt and everything about Dmitry screamed that he was the kind of man that would break your heart.

Dmitry didn't feel a flutter in his stomach but rather a warmth that would go through his whole body whenever Anya and him touched in any way.  
He is not a romantic person at heart. He could be romantic and make romantic gestures if he wanted to impress a woman but he didn't believe in soulmates or true love and all that crap.  
  
  


* * *

  
  
A week before the wedding he and Anya meet up to talk about how the day would go when Alexei joined them once again fleeing from his family and the wedding talk.  
Anya had not told Dmitry that Alexei knew that their relationship was just a ruse to get the family off of her back. She is sure that her brother would try to get Dmitry to confess but her "boyfriend" didn't budge and played the part of loving partner very well.

"I don't think that our family will know that your relationship is fake.", Alexei says right as Dmitry took a sip of his drink.  
He swallows loudly and coughs, "I don't know what you're talking about."  
Anya just smiles into her drink and winking at Alexei. Her brother understood the sign and presses even more for Dmitry to admit.  
"You can't fool me. Nastya is my favorite sister and my best friend I know her every telltale sign for a lie."  
"Why would we lie? Like we have told you all, we met by accident and when I realized she was the one that hit me in the face once and that she still owed me a coffee from that we started to see each other. I mean, your sister is really pretty.", Dmitry says and looks at Anya.

Alexei chuckles, "I remember that, but I know that she would never just apologize for something that happened years ago. She is way too stubborn for apologizing at all."  
Turning towards the youngest Romanov sibling, Dmitry starts laughing too until Anya swats him on the arm.  
"I told you that you cannot keep this a secret from me but I am smarter than my sisters anyways, so they can be fooled by your little scheme. I can understand why you are doing it. Nana can be very old-fashioned.", Alexei says and Dmitry's face falls, not liking that he couldn't fool the young man.  
  
"You hate that he knew, don't you?", Anya says on their way back to her apartment.  
"I used to be good at lying and conning people. A real conman.", Dmitry says just as they are stopping in front of Anya's apartment.  
"He already knew at that first dinner. But it is fine he can keep a secret. He once caught Tatiana sneaking out when he was a child and never told our parents.", Anya smiles and turns to Dmitry, "Thank you for helping me with this."  
"No problem. I mean, it does keep Lily of my back in setting me up with you."  
Anya just smiles, "Goodnight", she says and kisses his cheek before turning towards her door and getting into the lobby of her apartment building.  
  
Dmitry feels heat creeping up in his face and just waves as Anya with his hand as the other touches his face where moments before she had kissed him.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it so please leave kudos and maybe a review.


End file.
